“Why would you make such an awful statement,Kolo!
You should apologize for this”
Because I sincerely believe it is a pernicious and evil document which has destroyed the ability of the Latin Christians to fully live The Faith or effectively communicate with the Orthodox East.
“How much of the Catechism have you read anyway?”
All of it. I was also brought up on the Baltimore Catechism by the ironically named Sisters of Mercy.
You know, sfa, you wouldn’t need an “official” version of The Faith if the Latin Church lived Lex orandi, lex credendi, which all too obviously these days it does not... which in light of what has happened liturgically in the West, on balance may be a good thing.
“I’ll include you in my prayer at Mass at noon!”
Thank-you; as the “chief among sinners”, I need all the prayers I can get!
No serious Catholic disagrees that the Latin Liturgy should not be abused, nor that the Mass, when said properly, is the highest expression of the Catholic faith.
However, the Catechism is a major evangelizing tool. 99 percent of our disagreements with other Christians is not with the Orthodox but with the Protestants. This is markedly different from AD 892 when Byzantium evangelized illiterate and pagan Russia on the strengths of the liturgy alone. For example, the bulk of our opponents at FR want to talk theology and scripture, not liturgy.
Further, 90 percent of these discussions hinge on ignorance of the Catholic belief system. Typically, once the distortion of Catholicism is creared away, the dispute disappears.
In this environment, a definitive theological document is of immense importance. I would agree that it has a side effect of fostering legalistic thinking, but the good that it does far outweighs it.